Texas lawmaker slams bathroom bill aimed at trans congresswoman Sarah McBride: ‘Stop the bigotry’

A Democratic congresswoman has spoken out against Republican Nancy Mace’s efforts to ban transgender women from female toilets in the US Capitol – aimed directly at Democratic congresswoman Sarah McBride.

Sarah McBride, who also made history in 2020 as the first transgender woman to be elected to a state senate, defeated Republican John Whalen in the elections on 5 November, to win Delaware’s at-large seat in the US house of representatives – becoming the first-ever transgender congresswoman.

resolution introduced on Monday (18 November) would prohibit trans lawmakers from using “single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex”.

Asked on Tuesday if the resolution was tabled in response to Sarah McBride’s appointment, Nancy Mace, who authored the proposal, said: “Yes and absolutely, and then some. I’m absolutely 100 per cent going to stand in the way of any man who wants to be in a woman’s restroom, in our locker rooms, in our changing rooms. I will be there fighting you every step of the way.”

Sarah McBride
Trans state senator Sarah McBride won the Democratic Primary for Delaware’s lone US House seat ( Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

The resolution will be voted on by house lawmakers in early January and requires a majority vote to pass. Republicans currently have the numbers in the lower chamber to succeed.

Sarah McBride reacted to the proposed bill, saying: “This is a blatant attempt from right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing. We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care and child care, not manufacturing culture wars.” 

Now, McBride’s fellow Democratic congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, the US representative for Texas’s 30th congressional district, has also spoken out forcefully against the anti-trans move.

Writing on X/Twitter on November 19, she said: “If @HouseGOP really wanted to protect women, they’d release the Ethics Committee report on Matt Gaetz’ alleged sex trafficking – not try to ban their colleagues from using the bathroom. Stop the bigotry and release the report.”

Matt Gaetz is Trump’s controversial nominee for attorney general, calling Gaetz a “Champion for the Constitution and the Rule of Law.”

However, Gaetz has faced multiple allegations of wrongdoing, including a federal sex trafficking probe that ended without charges against him – and a House ethics inquiry.

Crockett’s tweet went viral, with over 3000 retweets and 340,000 views at the time of writing. Most of the top comments amount to a right-wing pile-on, possibly fuelled by the fact that many left-wing and moderate social media users have fled the Elon Musk-owned platform for rivals such as Bluesky and Threads in recent weeks.

However, there were still quite a lot of people who praised her viral tweet. One person wrote: “Release the Ethics report and leave Sarah alone! That’s the real way you protect women! Trans women deserve to be protected too.” Another added: “Once again, plain old common sense from @RepJasmine.”

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